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Wolexis Top 5: Premier League Biggest Transfer Blunders

With Kevin De Bruyne excelling at Manchester City after failing to get a sniff at former club Chelsea, here’s a look back at some of th...

With Kevin De Bruyne excelling at Manchester City after
failing to get a sniff at former club Chelsea, here’s a look back at some of
the biggest transfer mistakes of recent years.

Paul Pogba

Sir Alex Ferguson has not got many things wrong in his
illustrious managerial career, but selling Paul Pogba to Juventus in 2012 is
probably one of his biggest mistakes.

Pogba refused to sign a new deal at Old Trafford as he was
unhappy with his lack of first-team opportunities and he left to join Juventus
for a bargain fee of £800,000

The French international went on to establish himself as a
global superstar and one of the best players in the world during his time at
Juventus, making Ferguson’s decision to let the midfielder leave a bad one with
United failing to include a sell-on clause or a buy-back option in his deal
when he left Old Trafford.

It also proved a costly one as Jose Mourinho broke the world
transfer record by shelling out £89million to bring Pogba back to United as the
club looked to solve their midfield problems.

If Pogba helps brings success to United it will look money
well spent, but the whole situation could have been easily avoided.

Kevin De
Bruyne

Chelsea might see Belgian midfielder Kevin De Bruyne as the
one who got away considering the progress he has made since leaving Stamford
Bridge.

De Bruyne was sold by Chelsea for £18million in January 2014
to Wolfsburg for albeit a profit of £11million after initially signing him from
Genk for £6.7million in 2012.

The skilful performer saw his time at Chelsea short-lived
after reportedly failing to impress then-Blues boss Jose Mourinho and Chelsea
fans never saw the best of De Bruyne until now in the blue shirt of Manchester
City

Since leaving Chelsea the attacking midfielder has gone from
strength to strength with his stellar form at Wolfsburg seeing Manchester City
spending £55million to bring De Bruyne back to the Premier League in the summer
of 2015.

De Bruyne endured an injury-interupted debut season at City
last season, but so far this season he has taken his game to another level
under Pep Guardiola and he could prove the difference for City in the title
race this year.

Zlatan
Ibrahimovic

Arsene Wenger could almost have his own top five having had
so many costly errors of judgement in the transfer market none more so than
Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Arsenal boss Wenger had the opportunity to sign Ibrahimovic
as a 16-year-old when he was spotted playing in his native Sweden, but instead
of giving the forward a deal he offered him a trial in North London which the
young teenager rejected.

Wenger must regret that chance now to have signed
Ibrahimovic with the Swede going onto enjoy a trophy-laden career wherever he
has been and he has played for some of the biggest names in world football as
he can count Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, AC Milan, Paris Saint
Germain amongst his former clubs, while he now calls Manchester United home.

Wenger reflected on the incident, saying: “I said I hear
you’re a good player and I invite you to train with the first-team to see how
good you are.”

“I was shocked, I thought he must be crazy.

“I was the coach of Arsenal and he was 16-years-old. I
regret it sometimes, but I knew nothing about him, so I had to see him.”

No doubt Ibrahimovic will be keen to prove a point to Wenger
when United face Arsenal in the Premier League later this season!

Andy Carroll

Andy Carroll is to this day Liverpool’s most expensive
signing, having joined the club from Newcastle for £35million in January 2011.
And he remains arguably their biggest mistake.

Carroll was brought in alongside Luis Suarez at the same
time to try and replace Fernando Torres after his £50million departure to
Chelsea, but the Geordie was unable to match the impact of Suarez.

The England international arrived at Anfield injured and
with just six months experience of Premier League football and he spent most of
his two years at Liverpool on the sidelines rather than the actual pitch.

Once Brendan Rodgers took over at Liverpool he immediately farmed
him out on loan to West Ham who in the end signed him on a permanent deal the
following season for £18million.

Carroll actually scored 11 goals in 58 appearances for
Liverpool in all competitions and only for injuries things may have been
different for the player, but in hindsight Carroll was never going to be able
to live up that price-tag and was something of a panic buy by Kenny Dalglish.

Bebe

I may have said earlier Sir Alex Ferguson does not get many
things wrong, but the signing of unknown Portuguese forward Bebe was a disaster
for the Manchester United legend.

Ferguson signed Bebe for £7.4million from Vitoória de
Guimarães in 2010, despite famously admitting he had never seen the attacker
play.

Ferguson first met Bebe the day before his transfer was
completed and the player even admitted recently he was thought it was a joke
when he was informed of United’s interest in his services.

Bebe made a total of seven appearances during his at four
years at Old Trafford spending time out on loan at Besiktas, Rio Ave and Pacos
de Ferreira before being sold to Benfica in 2014 for £2.3m.

Bebe reportedly cost United £165,000 a minute when he played
for them and he goes down as one of the biggest ever flops in Ferguson’s
glittering career.